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No better place to begin with food than our own back yard. Planting seed or seedling, watching it grow, harvesting the fruits of your own labor.
The pride and the joy of growing your own food. All ages. All spaces.
I started growing food in my back yard when we rented our first home. Prior to that we grew herbs in pots near a window.
I laugh as it’s a fun science experiment. I slowly get better at it as I learn about my yard, which areas have the most amount of sun, or part shade, how to compost and then use that compost to replenish the soil.
One year, by not harvesting lettuce in time, our household learned how lettuce shoots up, flavor becomes bitter and inedible. We let it keep going, and ultimately the shoot flowered and set seed. This was a fantastic side effect of my inprecise gardneing, because when I would see lettuce seeds at the nursery, I kept thinking about my purchased lettuce and wondering where said seeds were hiding!
Another year, my children didn’t want to eat anything green - so I made a point to plant non-green vegetables: yellow cucumbers, red and orange peppers, gorgeous eggplant varieties of a pale purple skin that looked like spring pastels in our yard. So we play and we learn and when we get a crop it is exhilarating to bring the bounty into our house. Sometimes I can’t call it a crop. It may be one, yes ONE, pepper or peach that is the harvest - and wow, do we honor that one fruit or vegetable for the gift that it is from mother nature.
Here I speak in we. The ‘we’ is all of us in our house, at times it’s a neighbor or friend. It can begin with herbs, a tomato plant, a potted fruit tree.
Here you see my son, several years ago, taking pride in growing and harvesting potatoes that we roasted and served along fish he had caught. The pride for his bounty - and sharing it as a family meal to be enjoyed together. The effect of this is enduring.
Connecting with your food. One harvest at a time.
I encourage you to think of a corner in your space that could be your beginning. Start with kindness and with an open mind to learning. What could your beginning be? Or what has been a ‘win’ in the garden for you?
Feel free to share and comment here or by going to 'Contact Me' below with your thoughts. Even better - share a photo of your creation or garden or harvest on social media of your choice and tag #sensationssalud
Next week - Sensations week.
One more exciting thing - The Kitchenistas movie screening and panel, with many of us from the film!
iMax theatre in Balboa Park
San Diego, California
Wednesday Dec 8th, 2021, evening
exact time TBD
Save The Date!
In the meantime,
Salud!
Sabrina A. Falquier Montgrain, MD
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